Muddled Epiphanies

Heh, don't ya love a good rant? I sure don't. But it does help you figure out what you believe. The funny thing is, everything you say in that semi-infuriated state isn't the entire truth of your belief-structure. It's an aspect of it, and only on later retrospective do you notice the flaws, chinks, and compromises you yourself make.

Such is the case with yesterday's rant (and if you missed it, I'd read it first, go save a half dozen orphans from a burning building, donate 5% of your yearly income to charity, and then read this). I try to follow what I said below. And it sounds justified. It doesn't invade on anyone else, it is almost purely involving the self. Thus, the self is the only one hurt. But hypocrisy and the ignorance of it will usually manage to poke its ugly head up. I don't really mind hypocrisy, generally. Obviously when it directly violates someone else it's not acceptable. But when you do something the opposite of your professed beliefs and recognize it (and don't try to hide it) I can generally stand it. There's no deception involved. But what's really annoying is unrecognized hypocrisy. When you do something contrary to your beliefs and don't even know it. It happens to all of us, me possibly more than others because I simply have a fragmented mind that can't actively process all information available, so it does it in select doses that makes sense at the time, but later seem quite wrong. When I do something hypocritical, I'd like to be alerted. And if it involves me/bothers me I'd like to alert others. Sometimes we just don't realize what we're doing. But after you've shot the flare, the next phase travels into dangerous waters. On the one hand, you can see the hypocrisy, apologize/remunerate and try to not repeat your mistake. Or, you can decide your actions are not hypocritical. In a subjective reality, it's often quite true that what one person sees as contrary to a stated belief could comply with it by another's definition. Defend your stance and stand by it. It's when you're wrong and refuse to recognize/realize that you get into trouble. But hopefully that situation is quite rare.

But speaking of troubled waters, the theme I tried to address yesterday (in a somewhat cursory manner, time restraints and whatnot. Which, while I'm on, I'll say Abby's refusal to follow the rules in Apples to Apples last night was deplorable. Just because Caitlin requested it. See! Make comments, get results! You should follow that more often, especially in Perse! Anyway...). I stated yesterday that the best course of actions (and although I acknowledge "best" is subjective, I came down rather single-minded yesterday) is to only involve/worry yourself in your actions. However, although it sounds good in theory, most of you should know theory rarely works in reality. It is a rather Rand-y view (The idea of everyman for himself simply won't work, but that's another entry). But when care and concern for your fellow man (or fe-man hehe) comes into play, it's a whole different ballgame. And it's like travelling through the fog in sunglasses. Even if you think you see the light, it's hard to tell which direction to head, especially without bumping into something (like a conveniently placed bayonet) or falling off something (a horse, a stool, the Empire State Building). What you think is in someone's best interests may be very wrong. You may only aggrivate the situation. But then there are times when orphans are in that burning building, when the nuns are in the broken down school bus on the way to the bank right in front of a rehab clinic, when someone's addicted to something harmful that you need to step in. Helping your fellow man, even when he doesn't see the harm he's doing to himself, is an admirable thing to do. You just have to be absolutely sure you'd not only want the same thing to be done to you in his situation, but also that you really believe what you're doing is solely (or most importantly) in this person's best interests. That's one reason I dislike Hell and eternal punishment so very much because it convinces people to violate other's belief structures in the guise of their best interests. Missionaries mean well (from a non-cynical viewpoint, at least), and I can tolerate some of them as long as they let me return the "enlightened" favor. Of course, if they refuse to listen to your beliefs as well they're just hypocrites. You ought to tell them that, they might be interested in improving their philosophical views once you point that out.

Now, if the snickering is subsided, I'll move on. While mowing the lawn yesterday, I had a revelation of sorts as to where to take Perse. It'll allow a good transition into adding the Lucifer blog, it'll allow me to head in a completely insane direction, it'll fit the Lucifer theme, and hope it'll be amusing and thought provoking at the same time. It might be two entries away, though, but hopefully I'll get something up by Monday.

I also took the ACT test. Math tests are fun. They really are. But only if you have enough time and aren't rushed. I was rushed. ACTs BAD! Eh, just another example of what not to do when teaching. Hhmmm, remind me to write about college sometime. Oh, and tell me to write Perse, I need the encouragement. And write more comments in general, giving more feedback. And give money to charities. Lots of money. To good charities. And change the world. Make it better in general. And play boardgames. Lots of em. Even online. We need to do that. You get on it right now. So enjoy yourself, make others happy without infringing on their personal rights, don't get upset, don't worry, be happy, comment, and read Perse. Those are your missions. At least, until I add more next time...